Sunday Showcase: Master Tips and Tricks on Productivity You Should Know!

“I’m too busy!”  We all use it as an excuse when the real reason we don’t seem to have enough time is because we don’t manage it properly.  Time management is a huge issue for people, myself included.  Just yesterday, I sat around playing games instead of getting done what was important:  this blog.

The good news is that I’ve been keeping up with Camp NaNoWriMo, dishing out a thousand words each day.  That’s productive, right?  Turns out, that’s the easiest thing on the list, and I have a lot more to do.  I didn’t start preparing for this showcase until yesterday, and truth to tell, I had originally planned on showcasing blogs about attractive blog layouts.

But then I came across a blog and an interview about being more productive.  Since I have such trouble with it, I thought I’d showcase them instead.  So here they are:  master tips on productivity you should be paying attention to.

What Do You Do When Your Motivation’s Shot?

Holy shoot!  I just hit a wall.  So frustrating.  Here I was with all these wonderful plans of things to do today and now my motivation to do them is gone.  What do I do?  There’s got to be a way to get that motivation back, and procrastinating isn’t one of them.

I was sitting outside in the nice hot sun on Saturday wondering what my next blog post would be.  Then it struck me:  motivation!  It comes and goes and it never seems to be in the right place at the right time.  That was when I got thinking.  What things could I do to get back that motivation that hasn’t already been said before?

Sunday Showcase: 5 Twitter Tips I Learned From a 17-Year-Old Entrepreneur

When I started using Twitter, I had no idea what I was getting into.  I basically understood it as a social media platform that might help me establish a presence on the Internet.  Little did I know, Twitter has its own culture and it’s own rules, and if I wanted to land followers and find other aspiring writers or authors, I would have to learn something from experts.  A simple Google search helped me get started, laying down the basics.

Over the past month or so that I’ve used Twitter, there’s one particular expert I’ve come to admire, and it’s definitely not for his age. 

From the Disgruntled Editor: 3 Grammatical Errors in Your Blogs You Should Be Avoiding

Get out your red pens, people, because here comes a very disgruntled teacher!

I admit, writing can be tough work.  You do your research, brainstorm, and maybe even make an outline before typing up your blog, essay, book, or whatever.  The thing is even after all that planning, your first type up is going to have errors.  And guess who notices them?  Me!  Me and all the other keeners surfing the Internet who pay attention to detail.  There’s nothing worse than reading a blog with fabulous content and running into all sorts of mistakes.

No matter how good the content, unless you fix up the mechanics, I’m going to be less inclined to read the rest of your post.  I might even close out of it.  Why?  Because proper writing mechanics creates authenticity.

Sunday Showcase: 3 Blogs to Help Your Blogging!

This week has been very busy.  Alright, Saturday was busy, so I didn’t get around to planning anything for this week’s edition of Sunday Showcase.  But hey, now I have a brand new MacBook Pro to help me with my blogging!  My other laptop was just too slow, and trying to find pictures took FOREVER.  

We don’t want to take forever.  We want the ability to do the right thing the first time when it comes to blogging.  That’s why I wanted to feature blogs that provide tips and tricks for the newbie blogger.  I picked three again this time, and if you read my first Sunday Showcase, you’ll recognize one of them.

How Can We Stop Comparing Ourselves to Others?

The other day, I read an article by Claire Musters called "Don't Compare."  She said that comparing herself to others was something she did "throughout" her life.  So have I, and so have millions of others.  This got me thinking:  what self help is out there to solve this problem?  A simple Google search revealed a whole lot.  The expression "beating a dead horse" doesn't even compare to how many times people have talked about this subject.  There are so many articles written by people who have all experienced the same thing and how they overcame it.  You could spend your entire life reading them.

So why do I bring it up?  It's because despite all the help that's out there, people still struggle with comparing themselves to others.  Some people don't notice it.  For others, it's a glaring issue.  Maybe we're trying too hard.  Perhaps we need to look at it from a different angle.

Sunday Showcase - 3 Blogs to Help Launch Your Freelance Writing Career

Lately, I've been contemplating the possibility of freelance writing.  The more I keep up this blog, the more I realize I like writing and could do this as a career.  It's funny how it's taken me twenty-something years to figure that out (since I was born, mind you).  Because of my insatiable thirst to find techniques for becoming a freelance writer, I searched the web for blogs that would aid my decision-making.  It turns out there are too many freelancers to list, and it's a whole new world I'd never even heard of.  And the answer to how to become a freelance writer?  There is no right way.  Yeah, I'm going to have to chart my own course.

That was until writers started finding me on Twitter.  Whether it be about social media or writing, people are more than willing to offer their advice, and it was partially through these people that I stumbled across these three blog posts this week that can help launch me into a writing career.